OK to have radiation treatment for skin cancer?

[Hope Mann]

My dad has had MDS for 2 years (low risk – treated with prednisone only). Will radiation to skin cancer on his face make his MDS condition worse? He was having radiation on his nose just prior to him being diagnosed, and I wondered if that treatment caused the disease.

[Anonymous]

Dear Hope, In some patients who have received radiation therapy for a prior cancer, the bone marrow is damaged by the treatment itself, resulting in MDS, and this is called secondary MDS. Secondary MDS occurs in a minority of patients treated with these drugs but higher cumulative doses can increase the chances of its development. Patients with secondary MDS generally have a worse prognosis compared to MDS patients who have no prior exposure to radiation (“de novo MDS”). Because MDS typically develops at least 5-10 years after treatment with radiation and because your father has low risk MDS, I believe he has de Novo MDS. What has his treating hematologist determined?

• This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by .

[Brake Bethany]

Radiation therapy uses special equipment to send high doses of radiation to the cancer cells. Most cells in the body grow and divide to form new cells. But cancer cells grow and divide faster than many of the normal cells around them. Radiation works by making small breaks in the DNA inside cells. According to my knowledge radiation does not harm. And it is very useful in treating cancer. A friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer few months ago. Her treatment is still going on at the advanced radiation center of New York, which they came to know about through her physician’s reference. She had already attended many sessions since last few weeks, and is still recovering.

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